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Poseidon vs Yam

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. The sea as a god, in the Greek and the Ugaritic. Recorded by Wikidata (P460); not asserted by a text this corpus carries.

Deity · Greek · c. 700 BCE

Poseidon

also called Neptune (Roman), Posidon, Poseidōn

God of the sea and of earthquakes — 'earth-shaker' — who receives the waters in the same three-way division that gives Hades the underworld.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
Lord of the Sea
First attested
The Iliad · c. 750 BCE
Named there as
Poseidon
Texts naming it
3
Powers attributed
3
90attestedGreekRoman

Deity · Canaanite · c. 1400 BCE

Yam

also called Yamm, Judge Nahar, Judge of the River, Ym, ṯpṭ nhr

The Sea as a rival claimant to kingship, put down by Baal with two named clubs. It is the Ugaritic version of Marduk against Tiamat.

Alignment
Disputed
Rank
The Sea
First attested
The Baal Cycle (Ugaritic Tablets) · c. 1400-1200 BCE
Named there as
Yam
Texts naming it
2
Powers attributed
2
60attestedCanaanite & Ugaritic

Where do they actually overlap?

Texts naming both

None. The two never appear in the same text in this corpus, which is worth knowing before accepting any confident claim that they are one figure.

Powers credited to both

Causes Tempests

Common questions

Are Poseidon and Yam the same figure?

These two are identified with one another in the record, which is not the same as being the same figure. The sea as a god, in the Greek and the Ugaritic. Recorded by Wikidata (P460); not asserted by a text this corpus carries. ColossiansOne records the link rather than asserting the identity: where texts disagree about whether two names denote one figure, the disagreement is what gets shown.

Which is older, Poseidon or Yam?

Yam is the older name: first attested around c. 1400 BCE, against c. 700 BCE for Poseidon. Where the two dates are far apart, that gap is the whole reason the pair is worth comparing.

Do any texts name both Poseidon and Yam?

No text in this corpus names both. That is not proof they were considered the same figure, but it is why the identification has to be traced through the scholarship rather than read off a page.
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